Iranian Political Prisoner Dies Due to Unknown Injection
An Iranian political prisoner, who was arrested during mass protests in December 2017, has died due to the injection of an unknown substance in prison.
An Iranian political prisoner, who was arrested during mass protests in December 2017, has died due to the injection of an unknown substance in prison.
Mehdi Salehi, whose death was announced in social media on Thursday, had a stroke and went into a coma in January because of the injection of an unknown drug by Esfahan prison officials, human rights monitors said at the time.
A source close to Salehi's family told Iran International that he was chained to the bed in hospital. Recently, he had come out of coma but suddenly the family was told that he passed away.
He was among five protesters sentenced to death, with Iran Human Rights Organization warning about the possibility of authorities secretly executing them.
Large nationwide protests in December 2017 were triggered by rising prices and turned into anti-Islamic-Republic unrest in over 100 cities and towns. Hundreds of striking and protesting workers and labor activists have also been arrested since 2017, many spending months in prison. Some are still detained without trial.
In a report released this week, Amnesty International slammed Iran for prisoner deaths resulting from deliberate denial of medical care, turning prisons into "waiting rooms for death".
The global rights organization has documented how prison authorities routinely cause or contribute to deaths in custody, including by blocking or delaying prisoners’ access to emergency hospitalization.
Sixty-four of all these prisoners died inside their prison cells meaning they were not given even basic medical supervision in their final hours.
Roxanne Tahbaz says the United Kingdom government has betrayed Morad Tahbaz, 66, who has Iranian, British, and American citizenship. She alleges officials misled her family over the chances of his release and were not taking further steps to secure his return to Britain.
Roxanne Tahbaz pointed out it was a month since Iran released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a manager for Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Anoosheh Ashuri, a retired engineer, after the UK paid a four-decade-old debt to Iran of £400 million ($530 million). “My father’s still sitting in prison and my mother’s still on a travel ban," Tahbaz told reporters outside the Foreign Office in London Wednesday.
Morad Tahbaz, who is serving a ten-year sentence on espionage charges after arrest with other environmentalists in 2018, was released from prison on furlough on March 16 after Britain paid the debt, but he was not allowed to leave the country.
Unlike Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashuri, Morad Tahbaz is also an American citizen, which may complicate the case.
Cheap Exchange
In a commentary Tuesday entitled "Why Morad Tahbaz Shouldn't Be Exchanged for Cheap", Fars news agency affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said recent reports of unfreezing of $7b of Iran's assets in South Korea may be related to the possible release of American nationals detained by Iran including Tahbaz. State-controlled media, including the official IRNA news agency have periodically claimed that a deal has been finalized to release the funds.
Fars linked the Tahbaz case to those of Siamak and Bagher Namazi, dual US-Iran citizens jailed in 2015 and 2017 respectively. "It seems that the price of these two individuals and the third person should be much higher than $7 billion," Fars wrote, adding that Iranians held in the US should also be freed even if the US agreed with the release of the $7 billion.
Fars repeated claims by the IRGC intelligence organization that Tahbaz was connected to American, Israeli and British secret services operating in Iran under the guise of environmental activities to cause "damage to the country in nuclear and military areas." In other cases Iran has swapped detained foreigners for Iranians held in the US for sanctions violations, while Iran has also talked of links between prisoner exchanges and progress in talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Leverage
International human rights organizations and families of dual nationals held by Iran say their detention amounts to hostage-taking to gain leverage.
While the British and Iranian governments have denied any connection between the cases of the British nationals and London’s debt to Iran, Roxanne Tahbaz alleged that British authorities had led her family to believe that her father would be part of a deal and would leave Iran alongside Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashuri. Her father, she said, felt abandoned by the British authorities.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said Wednesday that Iran had failed to honor a promise to release Morad on indefinite furlough. “Continuing his horrendous ordeal sends a clear message to the international community that Iran does not honor its commitments,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to urge the Iranian authorities at every opportunity to release him immediately.”
Grenell, who was also a White House Advisor, told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad on Wednesday that he is not surprised by the Iranian regime’s move, adding that “we know that they deny systemically, every single day, basic human rights for women, for gays and lesbians, for the general population”.
Grenell, a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, who also tweeted similar remarks in Persian earlier in the day, said, “I’m not surprised that they see my work in Farsi and Arabic languages to push human rights as a threat. I am absolutely not surprised that they don’t want me to be speaking about these issues and try to silence me.”
Insisting that the Tehran does not sanction Democrats because they “are darting towards the Iranian regime,” he said, and added, “The Biden administration is filled with total hypocrisy. They pretend to talk about human rights, but it doesn't come into their calculus… they're talking about giving money to the Iranian regime, they dropped the sanctions on the Iranian regime.”
Grenell, who also served as the acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, found himself on Iran's list of sanctioned individuals this week, joined by 24 other former Trump administration officials who were officially sanctioned due to what Iran called “terrorist activity and human rights violations".
“I would just note that on the Iranians' list of sanctions, of who they're concerned about, who they want to silence, there are no Democrats, there are no progressives on that list. They're just Republicans” he added.
He said, “I find it as a point of pride when your enemies publicly say that you are a threat to them it just means that you are really doing good work”.
He defended his efforts for the rights of the LGBTQ community, saying that “I believe that if you are an international diplomat and you are working to criminalize homosexuality, then you should not get a visa. Your kids should not get a visa to come to the US. There needs to be consequences for individuals who criminalize homosexuality and push that issue in their country”.
Grenell added that the Iranian regime is terrified of the right-wing LGBTQ campaigns in the Middle East, noting that there is no such fear from the activities of left-wing organizations
There is no fear of the activities of Hollywood types and Disney-type left-wing organizations, he said. “I think the Iranian regime is very pleased that the gay left has never taken this fight to Iran or to the Middle East. I think it’s shocking that the gay left will continue partnering with the Palestinian Authority knowing that the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv is literally a beacon of hope in the entire Middle East,” the Republican campaigner said.
